The present subject matter relates generally to systems and methods of online marketing. More specifically, the present invention relates to systems and methods of online marketing which aid in determining return on investment.
Determining the return on investment (ROI) for advertising and marketing costs is an important metric for every company to monitor. The proliferation of technology and people's ever increasing use of the Internet has meant an unprecedented increase in the number of opportunities for companies to present themselves to customers. Rather it is email, text messages, social media, or advertisements imbedded in streaming media or websites, and there are currently numerous routes a company may take to reach prospective customers. These numerous routes, while providing highly customizable marketing strategies, also present the possibility of increased advertising costs and decreased ROI due to ineffectual advertisements.
The methods for tracking receipt of and responses to advertisements used in prior systems have been addressed in a relatively inefficient manner. Typically, tracking of Internet-based advertising and user responses to the same is accomplished by redirecting a user's response. First, a connection is established with a tracking system that records the user's response to the URL of the selected advertisement or link, and then, the destination IP address URL is provided. If an advertisement placed on a website delivers a customer to a different website for purchase, there is no way for the website in which the advertisement is placed to know for sure what has happened once the user arrives at that buy site. Therefore, the website in which the advertisement is placed has no way to know for sure if it is being compensated properly. In addition, the customer may visit the buy site later, making a purchase that would not be linked to the advertisement placed on the other website.
Click through rate (CTR) is a common online marketing statistic that represents the percentage of people visiting a web page who access a particular advertisement. This statistic may or may not coincide with the ROI for a given ad, but can be used to highlight the assertion above about the possibility of ineffectual online advertisements. The current CTR across all advertisement formats and placements online is estimated to be around 0.06 percent. This means less than 1 click per 1000 views of a given advertisement. While some companies may find this number frustratingly low, some advertising formats such as media rich advertisements or those placed on social media may double or even triple the average CTR rate.
This increased CTR rate suggests what most already know, some advertising methods are more effective than others. The issue companies' face currently is that while they do know which advertising methods are the most effective in garnering consumer interest (based off CTR and other statistics), they are unable to determine which method(s) lead to the most sales. This ability, to determine information about what advertisements lead to the most sales, is difficult to evaluate currently because typically there is little to no information which ties a sale to a given advertisements.
Presently, customers who view Internet advertisements do so almost completely anonymously. Only the most basic information, such as an IP address or device identification number is typically recorded when a customer views an online ad. Presently, this information cannot be reconciled with a customer's contact information unless they willing provide it as part of the advertisement (e.g., filling out a form to obtain a quote on a product). This is a rarity and typically advertisers have no idea what, if any, advertisements were viewed by a customer prior to making a purchase.
As shown, there has been no effective system or method available to advertisers to assess which advertisements their customers view and which are ignored when making a purchase. Basic statistics such a click through rate (CTR) can be recorded and reported, but there is no way to know which of these click through interactions lead to a sale. Accordingly, there is a need for a method of online marketing which associates users who have made a purchase to the advertisement(s) that lead to that purchase in order to determine ROI.